For a while, it seemed all of the good fortune in the world couldn’t save the Nuggets from their fiercest enemy.

Themselves.

But then, they created their own fortune, storming back in an electric fourth quarter to stun the Bulls 115-110 on Friday night at the Pepsi Center. The Nuggets, who had talked at length in recent days about finishing games the right way, did just that.

They made the plays that mattered when they needed them most.

They scored 42 points in the fourth quarter. They held the Bulls to two points in the final 1:41 of the game, and they got big performances from Emmanuel Mudiay, Danilo Gallinari and Kenneth Faried down the stretch to close things out.

The Nuggets overcame a 16-point deficit going into the fourth quarter to come out with the win.

“We didn’t give up,” said Mudiay, who scored 10 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter. “We’re not a team that’s going to give up. That spoke volumes tonight. Having trust in each other was a big thing. We executed what Coach wanted to do, and we also played defense toward the end.”

Faried had nine of his 11 points in the fourth quarter, along with five of his 11 rebounds. Gallinari led all scorers with 33 points.

“It was more about fourth-quarter defense,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “That’s where it starts. You finish off the defense with a gang rebound, and then you value the ball. Games like Utah, we didn’t do a good job of that. You want to win close games? You want to close teams out? You have to have good execution, value the ball, get the best shot possible, play good defense and rebound. If you do that, you’re going to win a lot of games.”

Things were falling in their favor early on. Pau Gasol would not play for the Bulls, out with an injury. The Bulls were missing Joakim Noah, who has been out for some time. Those two players were catalysts in the Nuggets’ loss at Chicago in December. Then on Friday, Jimmy Butler went down with a knee injury and did not return.

It was a big blow for the Bulls because Butler generally was doing whatever he wanted. But late in the second quarter, he went up high for a layup, was fouled in the air and landed awkwardly, his knee twisting upon hitting the hardwood. He finished with 19 points, five assists and two rebounds in the first half.

But the Bulls didn’t fold.

Instead, behind Derrick Rose (30 points, eight assists, nine rebounds), they built a big lead in the third quarter with efficient, energized offense and stifling defense.

It all set up a fourth quarter that was wild for many reasons, including a scoreboard that couldn’t get the numbers right.

Nothing was more maddening than the score in the fourth quarter constantly being wrong. And in the middle of a Nuggets comeback, no less. Things got screwed up and took more than a few minutes — and a ton of wrong scores — to get things fixed.

“I don’t know what was going on at the scorer’s table, but you’ve just got to concentrate on the task at hand,” Malone said. “For me, it’s tough because I want to know is it a one-possession game or a two-possession game, what is the right score strategy-wise.”

By the time the officials got things squared away, the Nuggets were down just one, 105-104, and charging hard to the finish.

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